Charlie can't wait to spend Christmas with her kids. But her moribund car and her infuriating ex are wearing her patience thin. And being whisked away on a multidimensional adventure in the middle of her groceries run is definitely not on her agenda. Yipok needs to save his home planet, Badukis, from rising tides by finding the prophesied Jahnjili, the Chosen One who will lead his people to safety. Armed with magic blobs harvested from the ocean, Yipok enters the Nexus - determined to find the Jahnjjili, or die. RAM has their eyes set on Badukis. To their shareholders it's a perfect location for a playground for the rich, but to RAM themself Badukis is an inexhaustible supply of magic blobs. Hunted by Ram's minions, Charlie and Yipok form an uneasy alliance to protect their Nexus guide, a spiky little creature named Puggle. Its capability to travel the Nexus is their only ticket for the trip home. But to get their hands on Puggle, RAM will do anything. Christmas is a time for miracles, and Charlie needs a big one.

Humankind has found the stars - and forgotten the coordinates of their home planet. Then Hana does the impossible and gets pregnant. Her mother's predictions ringing in her ears, she sets out to find humanity's lost cradle. She only has a myth to guide her and a young librarian, half human, half Shozien, to watch her back. Oh, and there's *Strawberry Mollusk*, a clapped-out cargo ship painted an impossible pink and ALI, the snotty on-board AI. Even all taken together the gang isn't enough to survive a journey across a hostile galaxy filled with nasty surprises. As if that weren't enough, an alien secret agent is coming after them...

Schoolteacher Fiona is on a mission for grandpa - find a missing Zimbabwean artefact, the precious soapstone "Bird of the Gods". Conrad - dodgy archaeologist contracted to the stunning influencer Amanda aka #mandalove - has the same job. When Fiona and Conrad's paths cross, what was supposed to be a straightforward quest turns into a crazy race around the world. With antagonists popping up at every corner - from mountain tops to underground settings like Serbian caves, frozen Canadian crypts, and the silver mines of the old West, Fiona and Conrad have to work together to catch their bird. Mutual respect grows into something more intimate. But not everything is quite as it seems, and they had better watch their backs lest they too end up underground, this time permanently.